Chasing Smiles
by LadyProphet
Summary: When Gin, Aizen and Tousen left for Hueco Mundo. Did they only really take themselves, or took someone important to them? It seems that Gin couldn't leave his subordinate alone. Ichimaru Gin oneshot - Gin/OC


A/N: Edited.  
Wow... This one is really old... and Gin is so friggin OOC but uh... It's one of my very early works, at least I know how I started off as :P

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"Tadashi-chan, will ya come wit'me? To a place, far, far away?"

Tadashi looked at the moon as she remembered the exact same words Gin had said to her, a long time ago. She sat on the sands of Hueco Mundo just outside Las Noches, Aizen's headquarters and played with the sand, scooping some and letting it fall between her fingers.

The incident at Sokyoku Hill was something she wouldn't forget, especially that time where her Taichou had asked her to come with him, to a faraway place and here she was in Hueco Mundo. At that time in Sokyoku Hill, as she looked at his face, for the first time he didn't have a grin and he had his hand outstretched to her. Leaving her friends, leaving where she had grown up, it didn't seem like an issue to her, and all she wanted to do, all that felt right was to put her hand on top of his, ascending to the heavens.

She didn't fathom that it was so different here, the sun didn't come out and because of that, there was little light. Even inside Las Noches, it was dark and the halls were only lit by the occasional torch and illuminated by the moon.

Tadashi was once a Shinigami in Soul Society as a fourth seat under Gin's division, and now she was, what the Espada's would say, Gin's Fraccion. But she wasn't anything like that, she saw no need to stand by Tousen or Aizen's side, so she stayed by Gin. It was him, after all that asked her to come with him.

A few of the Espada had ill will towards Tadashi, but most didn't mind her being around. She was content with everything though, except for one little thing. Gin had seemed to forgotten her existence.

She had seen very little of him the past few days, and today, the day had gone by without seeing him again. Tadashi couldn't understand and for some reason, it made her heart ache. It was him who wanted her to come, but why is it, when she thought everything would be okay, that it just turned out to be bad?

She tucked her legs near and wrapped her arms around them, resting her head in between. Was she only just a part of Aizen's plan? Come to think of it, Gin didn't need any protecting at all; it seemed as if she was useless.

"Ara… Here ya are, Tadashi-chan! I' been looking all over for ya."

Speak of the devil, she thought as she picked her head up and looked at Gin with a frown. He on the other hand, had his usual grin on.

"Oh, hi, Ichimaru-sama."

She had not called him Taichou since they left Soul Society. As Tadashi greeted him, her voice was void of any emotion, almost as if willing him to leave her alone. What had he been doing? It's been days since he spoke to her.

He didn't reply to her, but instead just looked at her for the duration of the time. Tadashi did so as well, and she noticed his grin faltered the slightest bit.

"I haven't been around much haven't I, Tadashi-chan? Sorry, I'll make up for it."

She just raised an eyebrow and stood up, walking to his side, like she always did. She didn't say anything and it looked like Gin expected her to, but when she didn't he just started to walk towards inside Las Noches with her following.

"I heard Nnoitra has been botherin' ya lately."

She tensed up as he attempted to make conversation, his statement being true. Nnoitra was one of those that just simply didn't like a Shinigami as low as Tadashi to be walking around Hueco Mundo, but then again, "Nnoitra bothers everyone, Ichimaru-sama."

He chuckled at her statement, and kept walking without further conversation. At that moment, something struck her. The reason for Tadashi following her superior's footsteps, as if he was the dog, and she was the tail, was because she liked him. She lifted her head up to keep looking at his back. How much she liked him, she wasn't sure, but as far as loyalty was concerned it seemed like she was stuck with him.

"Where are we going?"

Tadashi asked Gin, and he tilted his head a little near his shoulder to look at her,

"To my room."

She raised an eyebrow at him and continued walking, there was no way she was going to stay in his room, besides, her own room was only a few doors from his. He started to shunpo his way through the halls and she followed suite but she stopped when they reached her room door. Gin sensed her do so and stopped as well, turning back.

"Awe, ya don't want to come in my room?"

Tadashi again raised an eyebrow at him as his grin seemed to widen and she shook her head, turning the door knob and muttering a small good night to him before entering her room.

The next day, Gin was nowhere to be found again, and when Tadashi asked Tousen and Aizen, they said he had something to attend to. So all she did was wander the halls of Hueco Mundo, passing some Arrancars in the facility and she was now suddenly lost.

"Tsk, this place is too big for its own good."

She started to feel sick, what if she couldn't find her way back? This place was just as big as Soul Society and she had never strayed this far away. She looked around, it was so dark and she saw no doors, only endless halls. Tadashi took in a big amount of breath to try and calm herself, then sighed and kept walking.

"Stray dog?"

She swiveled around on her heels and there a few meters away from her was Nnoitra. She couldn't see his ridiculous face but the scythe he was carrying was obvious enough to signal it was him.

"This place has no space for dogs." She held her ground as he walked nearer and raised her eyebrow at him. "What? Are you blind? This place has space for at least a billion animals of all sizes." His smirk faltered for a minute as he kept on walking towards her but it returned after a second, "I meant Shinigami dogs or should I say underlings, like you." Nnoitra was 5th Espada, a 4th seat like her would not stand a minute against someone like him. But for some reason, she wasn't afraid, and when he picked her up by the collar, like he was holding a dog by the scruff, no fear crept in her system and she only stared straight into his eyes.

"You see this door?" He asked, pointing to a door that wasn't there before, or at least she thought. "You think I'm blind?" He continued to smirk not bothered by the insult, he used sonido to get close to the door, opened it and when she saw what was in there, she instantly regretted not running away in the first place.

There was nothing there. It was black, as if whoever who went in would be stuck in nothingness. Forever falling into an endless pit. "Have fun getting lost." He threw the Shinigami girl inside and she was engulfed by the dark. Her eyes closed and the sensation of falling just made her sick, until her world also became black.

Tadashi didn't know how long it had been but when she woke up, she thanked the gods she was still alive. She was in a room, painted white like usual. There were pillars of all shapes and sizes; it looked as if she was in a maze. The whole place was lit up and she was in the middle of an intersection. She sat up, and wherever she looked, it was just an endless hall of more pillars. Her heart started to beat fast, would she get out of here? She looked up and just as she thought, it was as black as black itself. The ceiling seemed to go on till the ends of the earth.

She slowly stood up and leaned on one of the pillars. She was scared, it was a huge maze, and made her feel like she was an ant lost in the big city. But she didn't want to be stuck in there, and instead of giving up, she jumped on one of the highest pillar and searched for an exit.

Suddenly, there was a shift of black behind her and before she knew it; her shoulder had a slash and blood pouring out from it. An Adjuchas class hollow was shrieking in laughter behind her. She winced and unsheathed her zanpakuto,

"Shou, Daikama Tourou! (Destroy, Scythe Mantis)"

Tadashi's katana like zanpakuto formed into a long, red scythe. Lucky for her, its shikai had one special ability. As long as it made contact with the foe, and as long as she had enough spirit energy, it will turn into dust as long as she wanted them to. But the downside was that she had to channel a certain amount of spirit energy into the zanpakuto, causing her to lose that amount.

The adjuchas turned into dust as it used its hands to block her attack, and as the dust flew away, she turned and started to look around again. Tadashi saw a door almost too tiny to see, and she just hoped she would make it there no trouble at all.

It was the complete opposite though, as she struggled fighting with various hollows, some didn't require her zanpakuto's special ability but still, a fight was a fight and it took out bits of her energy.

She jumped down from the pillar she was currently on and slumped her back to one of it. She panted, her sweat continued to trickle down her face. Turning her head to the left she could see that the door was only a few steps away now, but due to the hollows she encountered, she had various scratches on her body. She sheathed her zanpakuto and started to drag her feet to the door, one hand on the pillar wall for support and finally her hand touched the knob. She turned it, pushed the door open and couldn't help but smile as she saw the familiar halls that she always walked around in.

Back in Aizen's chamber room, Tousen, Gin and Aizen himself were there as usual. The Espadas and other Arrancars gathered around for a sort of meeting. One particular person was in a foul mood, and it was rare to see him like that. Tousen was more intimidated by Gin's frown than by his grin, he couldn't help but stare at the rare sight of him frowning, he was angry, anyone could tell as his eyes were shadowed over by his white hair. Tousen leaned low to Aizen's ear and whispered, "Aizen-sama, this doesn't seem good for him."

Aizen took a glance at Gin and knew exactly what Tousen was talking about. He had gathered the Espada here to find the girl that Gin had been so fond of, and when he motioned his hand to Gin, signaling he could talk, the said man walked forward and made his presence known.

The extreme burst of reiatsu in the room suffocated the weaker ones while the Espada held their ground and turned their heads to the owner. Gin let his reiatsu rest when all eyes were on him. He lifted his head, and even Tousen was taken aback. Gin's eyes were opened, and for once, everyone in the room saw his red, dangerous eyes.

"Where is Tadashi? If anyone knows where she is, speak up now." He hadn't seen her for days. From the crowd, Nnoitra winced, glad that there were a lot of Arrancars gathered in the room, he didn't have to fear though, he was quite sure Tadashi was dead for in that training room.

The chambers were quiet as no one spoke up, not even a whisper and if someone were to drop a pin, everyone would hear it. It was then that the door to the chambers gave a slight shake and creak, Gin averted his eyes from the crowd and looked at the door, everyone had heard it, amidst the silence.

The door pushed forward agonizingly slow, and the first thing everyone saw was blood. Tadashi leaned her whole body on the door just to get it opened, and she lifted her head to look at a blurry shade of mostly white color. But somehow, she knew Gin was among the people in there, and somehow she could see him there up front.

She raised a hand to reach out to him, and with the last of her strength, said

"I-Ichimaru-sama…"

Gin had moved in an incredible speed and caught her just in time before she hit the ground. Her blood pooled on his hands as open wounds of every size covered parts of her body. He didn't say a word to anyone and shunpo'd to the infirmary.

Tadashi started to breathe slowly but surely, opening her eyes that were still quite blurry, blinking a couple of times to clear it off, and then saw that she was staring at a white ceiling. She laid there for a while, and instantly remembered what had happened. She tried to sit up, but just fell back down on the soft bed again.

"Ya finally awake."

She moved her head cautiously to the side and saw none other than her Ichimaru-sama. She blinked, something was different about him, and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw he wasn't wearing his usual grin, but there was only a small smile on his face, almost out of relief.

Something in her heart stirred, as if she hadn't seen him in years she reached for his hand and he moved closer to her, taking it in his, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Why are you sad?"

Tadashi asked him, frowning as well, he looked down at her and for once, his mouth turned upward into a genuine smile, not his usual grin but a real smile. When he spoke, he opened his eyes and all she could see was gentle orbs of red.

"Tadashi-chan, you've been asleep for weeks." She blinked and laughed a little, but it hurt to laugh so she stopped and just smiled.

"And you're happy now cause I'm awake? Maybe I should go back to sleep again." He gave a light chuckle and her smile just got wider, it was a long time since she joked with him that way. "Ya make me smile, Tadashi-chan." She nodded and closed her eyes, "But you look happy too, I haven't seen you smile for a long time." She snapped her eyes open and realized what he said was true, since he had been busy with something; she didn't seem to have the will to smile.

"Being with you makes me smile." She simply replied and earned another chuckle from him, she closed her eyes wanting to sleep again, and he seemed to understand as he picked her up in his arms and gently moved her to make space for him. He climbed up next to her and when he did that, she moved closer to him, feeling his arm drape across her waist and his lips make contact with her forehead. The last words she heard before drifting off to sleep again, was Gin,

"In that case, you'll be smiling all the way till the end."


End file.
